More research needed if agriculture is to be reformed, claims German paper
A new agricultural policy will only be possible if new agricultural research is carried out, claims a paper published by the German Federal office for environmental protection. The paper, 'Research for a sustainable agriculture', prepared by numerous scientists as well as the federal office, claims that the reform of agriculture to a sustainable use of land will only be realised through appropriate research. The text is intended as a contribution to the development of future agricultural research and as a call to political actors to address the problem. 'The goal must be a realisable sustainable economy. For this, long term research as well as the development of new methods and innovative technology is necessary. We have to achieve this by better assessing the effects of land use in the preliminary stages instead of documenting aberrations afterwards,' says Professor Dr Harmut Vogtmann, President of the Federal office for environmental protection. The paper highlights likely future difficulties in agricultural research and describes how its organisation, structure and funding could be reformed. Instead of sectoral agricultural research with the aim of cheap food production, approaches which concentrate on the relationship between people, nature and agriculture should have priority, thus contributing to the improvement of sustainability and quality of life. The paper argues that this message should form a part of agricultural training, saying that its absence has led to a lack of regard for nature, with later negative consequences for biological diversity. 'The goal of environmental protection and agriculture is to be directed at and coordinated with regional realities. Both [the environment and the regions] will then be able to profit. Through penal neglect of research a huge backlog has arisen. This is best tackled through a massive reform of available research means,' according to Professor Vogtmann.
Kraje
Germany